{Painting the Kitch}

Hello, Hello!

I am progressing on the kitchen!! Woohoo!  I was off of work yesterday and the day before, and completed almost{touchup in some place is necessary} all of it {with the help of my loving, caring, handsome, sweet husband who mainly encouraged me, he wanted no part in painting}. He just loves my constant home improvement ideas....doesn't he?

Monday while waiting for the primer to dry, I began staring at my chalkboard, the red just does not go with the grey anymore.  I began taping the chalkboard with my trusty Frog tape. My husband walked into the room and said {and I quote} "Oh Lord, now she's painting everything...." I think he loves my beautiful decorating mind.  If nothing else it gives him something to laugh about.  You probably remember the before of this one....It was obviously around Christmas.

and the BEFORE-before....

Well, I painted that baby white {Behr Ultra Bright White left over from the guest bedroom/future nursery} and I love the contrast of the white and griege {grey-beige} on the walls. Those little snowmen on the BEFORE-before have been through a lot of changes this year.

Oh Yes, this is a sneak peak at the new color in our kitchen.  Glidden Wood Smoke. Don't you love it?

Cute chalkboard.  So happy to be rid of the dark red! The sunshine comes pouring in!!

I may paint a trellis pattern on it or I may leave it be. Most likely the latter but we will see.

Now I'm really struggling with the question of dark or light cabinets?...Light cabinets would REALLY lighten it up in here, but we both like the look of dark cabinets with the rest of our house...We are planning on refinishing the cabinets in the near future, but don't want to get overwhelmed, you see.

BYE!

{I Love Wood}

That's what she said...OK, Mike laughed about this post title. Whatever I do. Love wood. But this particular piece of wood, I realllllly love. I found it. On the street, and I thought it was SO cool looking, so I risked my life to pick it up. I made it out alive and look at the end result! But first, here's the BEFORE! Just a random piece of wood.

We've got a piece of wood just laying on our coffee table...My hubby just loves my arts and crafts.

And the cute after...

I love bringing the outdoors in....I got my inspiration for this mini project (and by mini, I mean it literally took me tha-ree minutes - start to finish) from my new favorite website Pintrest.  This was the inspiration photo.  I did a mini-version, but I still think it's cute and very natural looking.  My mother came over while I was making it and thought it was so cute! I just love my mama...

P.S. Can you really believe how this Casey Anthony case has turned out?  Me either, sad for her sweet little daughter...

Bye, Folks!

Linking up here:

{an exciting arrival}

Hello, Hello!

Guess what showed up on my front porch today...? My Glidden Wood Smoke, two quarts of this fabulous paint! I *think* I'm going to have to get more, but I may not. If I just use a primer, it may be enough for the kitch!



I was so very excited that it arrived, but I'm going to have to wait for another weekend to paint. My family and I are headed to the lake this weekend after a friends wedding on Friday night. There (in my opinion) is not better place to be than the lake for the 4th of July. It just makes me SO happy!! We're going to enjoy some smoked meat, some wonderful much needed family time, and of course the annual fireworks that they do the cove over from our place and about 200 boats are just floating in the water right in front of us.  It's amazing!

I'm going to be spending exactly 3 days in this little number (or something along these lines)...


and enjoying some of this tremendous view from our place...







4th of July LAST year, lake

Mike and I's lake trip summer 2010

I hope you all have a safe and fun 4th of July! USA!

Until next time!

{You guys! I'm excited}

Hey you guuuuyyys, 

Name the movie you get a cookie.  I'm so excited today! Over the last couple of weeks I have been going crazy trying to pick a color for our kitchen.  Well it turns out "Wood Smoke" by Glidden was my number one choice.  As I was blogging around this past freezingicecolddreary weekend, I found a little post that said something to the effect of, "Glidden giving away 200,000 free quarts of paint on May 16 at midnight" Uhmmm rewind, WHAT? Nothing comes free anymore.  Here is a little preview of my new favorite paint on a wall in a fellow blogger's home, she literally did a whole post on this color right here. 

photo

photo

 It's the perfect neutral for the kitchen! So, I did a little more research, and set my alarm (yes I go to sleep before midnight on a work night) for midnight.  Well obviously their website was WAY overwhelmed with all the traffic.  I think it crashed.  People were mad.  I figured whatever, the worst that happens is I have to $buy$ some...I tried one more time before I went to sleep, and PRESTO! It worked! I got my quart of Wood Smoke.  All I'll have to buy is some primer and possibly a little extra paint.  I do think these 2 quarts will color all the kitchen but we will see. Yay! I made my mommy get one too for me (one per household rule), just in case.  I can't wait to get the ball rolling on my kitchen.  I'm beyond sick of the brick red we have in there now.  This color is going to lighten it up so much and we really get so much natural light in there anyway.  I'm going to paint the trim white eventually as well.  

I got to thinking all dark on the cabinets now (my mind changes more than the weather here in KC) and just get glass put in some of the doors probably the ones I had taken off but didn't love that look...

Speaking of open cabinets.  I'm beyond frustrated with the dishes we had on our registry at BB&B for our wedding.  The manager is going to hear from me soon.  Almost every. single. one. is chipped.  It's annoying.  So I went and bought 12 new place settings on our one year anniversary.  Happy Anniversary to us! Who says paper is the gift for your one year anniversary?  I went with porcelain. Well, we got each other cards so I guess those count.  Anyway, I'm in love with these little beaded plates.  I read every single review online and everyone loves them.  Milky white, durable, classic, and so stinkin' cute.  Why didn't we register for these to begin with? Sad face... They will look too cute behind some glass cabinet doors.  Sorry about all the bad pictures in this post. All were taken with my iPhone...at night...When will I learn?

In other exciting news, I finally decided where we're going to buy our deck furniture cushions. BALLARD DESIGNS!!  I've been getting their catalog for about a year and a half.  If you are not getting their catalog, you need to! You're missing out... Here's a picture of all the options by way of outdoor cushions. I don't want to compromise on these because we aren't getting new furniture for a while, so I'm convinced we should reward ourselves with eye-candy cushions.

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions...

They put way too many pretty fabrics together on one page.  How does a girl ever decide?  Help me! I'm torn between: (I would mix patterns and solids, patterns on table chairs and solids on lounge chairs and chaise) Arden Spa & Spa, Arden Black & sand, Ikat medallion & green, OR brown canopy stripe & brown... Oh, boy this is going to be tough.  If you have an opinion please don't hesitate to let me know.  I'll take all the help I can get!

We have a very busy weekend ahead of us!  Our friends are getting married in St. Joe this weekend and we're headed to the Royals vs. Cards game Sunday...did you see the game 2 nights ago? Pathetic, really. I hope they can pull it together.  I don't want to waste my Sunday for a loss... 

CIAO!

{Kitchen Thoughts}

Welcome Back!  I did a post yesterday but have been busy today and wanted to do another one!
Remember the project I talked about yesterday.  The drapes painted with wall paint?? Well I did it! And I swoon over them every time I enter my kitch! They are perfect.  I should not say 'perfect'.  None of my projects are perfect,  that's what makes them unique!  It does have little bitty minuscule teeny tiny flaws like the paint line is not so even on some parts.  But if you're looking that closely, you probably would not be invited into my home in the first place...

Here is the before:

During...

More measuring???!

Hard at work!

The curtains all painted!

And the beautiful but not perfect after!

They look so great here! Mike doesn't ever know they're up yet! 

This picture is a better indication of the true color.  I think it's beautiful.  I am definitely going to paint the wall this color as well!

I'm toying around with the idea of having some open cabinetry.  My mom doesn't like it, but it's growing on me.  I took three doors off yesterday and rearranged some things to see if I like it before filling in the holes from the hinges with wood filler.  I think I like it! Here's just two of the doors off. 

Our Wedding Cake Tray!

Since the upper cabinets will be white so will the inside of the open cabinets.  I'm thinking mirrors on the back of the cabinets...Sounds pretty.  And I need to get some cabinet liners, BAD!

I took the doors off of the cabinets below the sink, as well.  Our kitchen just had WAY too much oak.  I wanted to break it up a bit until we refinish them, so I added a little sink skirt.  It's pretty darn cute if you ask me.  It was actually a longer curtain but I just chopped it off and used some Stitch Witchery from JoAnn's and cropped it a bit.  I then bought a cheap tension rod and VOILA...

We get SO much natural light in our kitchen.   

I also wanted to give a quick tip to my readers that have chalkboards in their homes.  I discovered what is called a Chalk Pen at HobLob.  It makes the writing so much more clear.  I'm obsessed!  Check out my chalkboard with this new pen! No chalk dust or anything.  Think about it.... :-)

Linking Up HERE!

{Wainscoting Adventures: Day Tres}

It continues, my lovelies!  I'm OK with it. We got a lot done today between eating 8-10 cookies a piece thanks to my momma, breaks to watch the big miserable KU game :-( and meeting with the deck guy! Holler!

Firstly, WE BOUGHT A SWEET NEW COMPUTER! Look what this chick will be blogging on. Yes, the MacBook Pro! I love it.

Our New Baby!  What a great computer! We wanted this one so bad & we got it! Apples are the bomb dot com.



Look at that dreamy keyboard.  It's like typing on a cloud...

Next, we talked to a builder today about a NEW deck.  As most maybe none of you know, Spring is the best time of the whole wide year to build a deck.  We wanted to do it last year, but never got around to it with the wedding and all that jazz. Our rinky-dink deck is seriously, no seriously, 10x12.  It's re-deck-u-lous (pun intended), people.  So friggin' small. We can barely fit our small table on it. L.A.M.E.  If you know us, then you know we love to entertain.  We love having people over and we love hanging out on our deck.  If the weather is nice and the Chiefs aren't on that's where we hang out.  In fact, in the summer Mr. Le Inspired Nest and I eat more dinners outside than inside.
It's only fitting that we need a larger deck.  Enter Larry Swain (our super-duper deck builder).  We are going from a 10x12 box to *drum-roll* AN 18X24 BEAUTY!  I wish I had before pictures. I guess I could go and take some.  To be honest, I'm pretty comfortable and it's snowing outside. And it's spring. And supposed to be about 65-70 degrees.  Sorry, folks, no deck pictures tonight.  Try measuring it out if you want to see how small it is. 

We decided to get iron spindles (my favorite touch), and a wide stairway (4 ft.) going out to our huge backyard (P.S. Why such a teeny tiny deck for such a HUGE back yard? I never can understand that...) Needless to say, I'm pret-ty excited about it. 

Next topic, wainscoting...Come on, people, give a sister a break.  I've been working.  Slowly but surely!  We didn't finish today like I had hoped.  But, hey, that's life!  It never goes as planned, and I can deal.  Hopefully Tuesday we'll be done.  I make no promises.  We are still progressing and here are some highlights.


Primed.  No molding up yet.  We still need to miter cut it.  See that green tape? Amazing!



The boxes by/under the window.  I think I did such a good job! YAY! Still painting the trim around the windows and doors.  And, yes, that is paint *gasp* on the floor.  It comes off of wood floors so easy. 



Taking the tape out from underneath the baseboards after painting!

Spackling IS FUN!

Spackling smooths out the rough edges and the corners that don't meet perfectly.  There were quite a few, but now it's like they always met perfectly!

I am so excited to see the final product! My mom came over today, fattened us up a bit with some delish chocolate chip cookies (going to get my ninth (? lost count) one now....) and she said she "loved it" and that it looked "perfect".  I love my mommy!

The two items that have helped me so much on this project: Frog tape and Liquid Nails.

1. Frog tape: The green tape in the pictures above.  Please! If you are doing any painting at all, USE. THIS. TAPE.  I will never go back to that blue tape.  It may be cheaper but what's a few dollars more when the paint bleeds underneath it.  I wish I could show you a paint line with the blue and then with the green tape.  Such a difference! GO GREEN, PEOPLE! You'll totally thank me later and I'll say "told ja"!

2. Liquid Nails: It's not literally liquid nails (that'd be weird), but seriously this stuff is AH-mazing.  I wanted to use a nail gun but my mom was basically like "Are you friggin' crazy, lady?" and was probably going around telling random strangers that I'd lost my marbles, or fallin' off my rocker or something of that nature.  It was almost like a "You'll shoot your eye out" moment from A Christmas Story.  She literally said to me " No, nail guns kill people."  Mom, nail guns don't kill people, people kill people.  Athankyou.  Long story short.  I ended up with Liquid Nails.  We have used it before on our mirror in the master bath.  I liked it then and I like it now.  One tube put up all of the boxes.  I bought two but know I will use it eventually.  It makes the wood stick...well...like nails. :)

The single most important advice for this project: MEASURE TWICE, CUT ONCE! Heed this advice and all *should* go well.  Measuring is so important if you plan to do this project! Send me a message if you are interested in doing it and I can give you numerous tips! Have a beautiful day, and thanks for tuning in!

{Wainscoting Adventures: Day Dos}

Well, as much as I hate to say it, there is going to be a "Wainscoting Adventures: Day Tres".....We worked sort of hard today.  We didn't really stress about it...well, Mike didn't.  I was kind of a drama queen/diva today (at least I admit it).  I messed up on the measurements and Mr. Hubby just cut where he saw the lines, I sort of freaked because I didn't want to got to the Depot again!!! They should probably know me by name now anyway.  There was a slammed door in the midst of the measuring/miter saw fiasco.  We were not friends for about 3 minutes.  It was short lived and we got it all figured out, kissed on the stairs when we were passing each other, and I, yes I, apologized first.  Then all was right in the world again.  No biggie I just have to get a little more molding on my lunch tomorrow...Is it the end of the world? Maybe...Should I have been mad at my hubs? Nope. I was wrong! Moving on, let's not dwell on my wrongness any more than is necessary.

Oh, and to thank me for all the miter sawing I made let him do, he made me a crab dinner complete with sweet potatoes, carrots, and rice! Yum.  Be jealous, ladies!



I love love love our compound miter saw.



I have about three pages front and back that look like this! I can do math!

Progress! This was the first piece up on the wall.

 The chandelier! Oh, the chandelier! I love this piece of art! I am so grateful that I spent the $3 on this beauty.  I thought we would have a difficult time putting it up, it had some older looking wires.  We turned off the breaker for the guest bedroom.  It literally took us 15 minutes.  I was holding it and Mike was connecting the wires.  Went downstairs flipped the switch, and we had a beautiful light fixture! It was so simple that I want to get one for the kitchen and re-finish it! I thought for sure it would be an hour ordeal.  Boy, was I wrong! I was so BEYOND excited.  Like, literally people, jumping up and down, smiling ear to ear, kissing my husband.....all for a chandelier....Oh, my exciting life!  I even told Mike, "It's like God is looking down at us and saying you guys really worked hard and did a lot, I think you deserve to have the chandelier be easy to install..."Hallelujah!!!! I opened the shutters and turned on the light tonight so all of our neighbors could see my new light and be green with envy.

Chandelier in it's new home. It's so gorgeous here!

Again, the one wall we finished.  I was so proud to get that far! Obviously, it needs painting and caulking AND spackling, and I'll add some sanding in there too for good measure.

This is what it will look like with the chair rail type board, It's not attached yet, we just held it up to see what it would look like.

So pretty.  I'm happy with the progress. I expect to be totally done by Sunday!

 Thanks for stopping by. Have a nice day!